I am remolding my house and putting it on the market for sale. I was left a 900 sq ft ranch by my uncle in his will. He has the old screw in glass fuses 60 amp service. Is it important to upgrade the electric to circuit breakers and 100 amp service. Will this hurt my chances of selling the house if I don’t?
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It’s a great selling point if you can say you have 200-amp service.
It really, really sucks if you have fuses. Your home value plummets.
If you’re changing from 160 to 200, it’s probably not worth it.
Here’s the problem: are you JUST putting in a new box or are you going to be forced to rewire your whole house? Will the electrician come in and discover that he can’t put the box in at all because the rest of your house is sub-standard?
That’s what I found with my house (98 years old at time of purchase). Here are some things that will increase your cost:
–if your outlets are ungrounded
–if your grounding is only connected to plumbing
–if your wiring is old and insulation is cracking
–if your wiring is too low a guage for 15-amp breakers
–if you don’t have GSE outlets in your kitchen/bathrooms
–if you don’t have enough outlets in rooms
–if you don’t have the correct outlets for high-amp appliances
Not all of these are disqualifiers, but it’s worth getting an estimate for the job first. They’ll usually pay you a visit for free.
When you get the estimate, ask yourself if you’re going to get that much in value selling your home? If the estimate is $3000, can you raise the price of your home by more than that, say by $5000 or more? If you can’t, it’s not worth it.